starting with the obama sequester. unless senate democrats allow a reasonable spending cut alternative that passes this chamber before march 1, the president's plan will go into effect. the legislation averts the obama sequester months ago, but senate democrats have yet to pass an alternative bill that could actually go to congress. in fact, it took them until this week for them to say that they would do an alternative, indie and the alternative they have come up with is clearly, clearly designed to fail. they knew this was coming more than a year ago. yet they still haven't put forward a serious raposo of replacement spending cuts. what a colossal waste of time. at the beginning of the year, democrats promise that things would be different. they promise to get their work done ahead of time. instead of five minutes before the deadline. instead we find ourselves in familiar territory. it goes something like this. republicans identify a challenge and propose a solution well in advance some gimmicky bill is designed come